Hey guys,
This has probably been asked many times. I've seen the HD2 play movies face to face, is there a program or a format that can be used on the TP2 to utilize the whole screen and not just show a movie in letterbox format?
This "letterbox format" you speak of is a result of the movies aspect ratio not matching that of your phones screen. Getting it to fill the whole screen should be a scaler setting of whatever video player software you are using.
By default most software is set to maintain the correct aspect ratio while keeping the full frame of the video visible. You want the setting that maintains the aspect ratio but zooms in on the video to fill the entire screen. The name of such a setting is variable between different applications; on Media Player Classic in Windows it is called "Touch Window From Outside", on TCPMP it is called "Fill Screen" and in the Zoom section of the options menu. I've never used any HTC video player application so I cannot help on that end.
With todays standards, there are several Aspect Ratios, though the most well known Aspect Ratios are Widescreen/Letter Box [16:9]/[16:10] and Full Screen/Standard [4:3].
If you wish NOT to download/install other apps to watch a movie in simple Full Screen mode, just make sure the video you want to watch in full screen is atleast 4:3 ratio.
I've got the HTC Legend and have used Doubletwist to sync and convert videos for it. It converts the videos nicely except they don't seem to be well compressed.. I used it to convert a movie and it ended up being a larger size than the original (700mb -> 800mb).
Instead of resizing it and keeping aspect ratio from 640 x 272 to 480 x 204 and letting the phone add black borders when the video plays, it added black borders itself and made it 480 x 320. Also the bitrate of the video was increased from 709 to 829 which seems unecessary.
I tried converting it also in Avidemux and got the file size smaller but it was not as high quality as the Doubletwist output.
But it seems logical that you should be able to get a smaller dimensions, same quality and smaller file size video..
What are some alternative softwares?
http://www.virtualdub.org/
Virtual dub is pretty fast, you can resize, crop, correct aspect ratios, deinterlace etc etc.
via the "filters" menu.
It's quite a minimalist piece of software, but it's transcodes very fast and has everthing you need.
Thanks, yeah I'm familiar with virtualdub.
However some of the videos I'm converting were .flv and it wasn't too happy with that. And I cant seem to find the exact right encoding options to maintain the quality DT can achieve, but also have a decent amount of compression
hmm - sounds hard to do in one pass. If you are lucky enough to have an editing package like Sony Vegas or After Effects it should be doable.
If you can bear a two -step conversion you can use this:
http://www.videohelp.com/tools/FLV_Extract
to convert FLV to AVI without loss.
Then use the encoding package of your choice to shrink the file to a phone friendly size.
Yeah I do have sony vegas, how would I do it in that?
And yeah the main problem is encoding it to be played on the phone. I can get the right format, but not perfect quality with decently low size
Another creation of mine.
This is a blank live wallpaper that allows you to set your own video as a live wallpaper animation!
Lots of codecs and formats are supported.
You need to have your own video (preferably in MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 or divx) and set it in the Live Wallpaper's preferences. You can also set an entire folder (and optionally all its subfolders) and the Live Wallpaper will choose between all videos inside (randomly or not, your choice).
If you don't have any videos to play with, try this one or this one or this one. Download them with your computer and transfer them on your Android device, or downoad with the Android device directly (a common download destination is /sdcard/download). Then select one of them with the Video Live Wallpaper. (BTW, these videos are all reencoded electric sheeps designed by cqfd93 of the electric sheep project. Original links to the sheeps: 22906|22706|22551)
The preferences of the Video Live Wallpaper include Help which should help you get started with making your video(s) as live-wallpaper-friendly as possible. A copy of the same help document can also be accessed from here if you want.
Use the following link on your android device or scan this QR code:
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
Alternatively, you can get the Video Live Wallpaper from this link:
VLW-084b.apk [via mediafire]
Or you can get it from the bottom of this post if you are registrered to xda-developers.
0.84b is the most current version.
Changelog:
0.84b, published 2011-03-20 [from post 36]
- fixed a bug which prevented this app from working on certain devices like Dell Streak (thanks to guyver3869 for testing)
- fixed a minor memory usage bug, still working on the bigger one
0.83b, published 2010-12-06 [from post 30]
- fixed a bug where memory consumption would slowly raise and eventually crashed the app
- a new feature/setting called Rendering mode is introduced
0.82b, published 2010-10-13 [from post 13]
- fixed a bug where changelog kept showing in settings. Sorry about this!
0.81b, published 2010-10-13 [from post 13]
- fixed a bug where selecting certain directories would cause force closes
- fixed a bug where selecting a different video file would have no effect (thanks to rod for discovering the bug)
- corrected grammatical errors in help
0.8b, published 2010-10-09 [from post 3]
- initial version
Frequently asked questions - FAQ
I've downloaded and installed it. How do I open it?
This is a live wallpaper, not an app, you can't open it in a traditional sense. That is why the market button is disabled and that is why there is no app icon.
Follow this procedure to set it as a live wallpaper:
go to your home screen
press the menu button on your device
select "Wallpaper"
select "Live Wallpapers" *
search and select for "Video Live Wallpaper"
select "Settings" to see the settings and select the video file to play back. Then select "Set wallpaper" to activate it
(* if you don't see "Live Wallpapers" option in the "Select wallpaper from" menu then your device probably doesn't support Live Wallpapers)
My video loads but it's very jerky/looses frames alot, and it makes the home screen app very slow. What to do?
Not every codec and format is the best choice for the Video Live Wallpaper. The maximum video resolution recommended is 854x480, the maximum FPS at that resolution is 20. You can go as high as 30, but then decrease the resolution. MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MJPEG and MPEG-4 are the best codecs to choose for, while x263 and x264 are two of the worst possible ones because they are complex. If you have your video in a .flv or .mp4 format, try converting them to .mpg or .avi. In any case, please read this page (also embedded in the live wallpaper's help) to learn which kinds of videos are good and which aren't.
Why is there no sound? Will sound ever be supported?
Sound will likely never be supported, because:
it's extremely hard (with some codecs even impossible) to sync live wallpaper video to its audio due to how live wallpapers are handled (they often have to pause, they are often killed or slowed down by android in order to make swiping look smoother, for example, etc.)
sound just doesn't belong in an app that would play it all the time (or at least all the time that you're on a home screen). Shorter non-spontanious sounds are fine in a live wallpaper, but a long-lasting sound that never stops just starts to annoy the user after a while. Imagine for example you're in a meeting/at your job/in class and you can't even check the time on your phone without interrupting the said event. Imagine someone calling you and you suddenly hear two sounds out of your phone. Imagine listening to mp3s and being in the home menu at the same time. Sound just shoudn't be a part of any live wallpaper.
Please enable Move to SD.
No. Live wallpapers shouln't be movable to the SD. To learn why, read the official developer guide by Google.
Why does this Live wallpaper require internet access?
It's to download and show ads. They appear in the Live wallpaper's settings.
I can't find this on the market. Where is it?
Try to access it on your device directly using this link. If your Market can't find it then you probably have a version of Android prior to 2.1 which doesn't support Live Wallpapers.
I've downloaded the APK but I don't know how to/can't install it. How do I do it?
Try this:
on the phone, go to Settings -> Applications -> check "Unknown sources" *
find yourself a file browser on the Market. ASTRO File Manager is a good choice
open your file browser app, search for the APK file on your SD card and launch it. The phone should offer you a dialog to install the live wallpaper (or to select the Package Installer)
later when installed, go to home screen, press the menu key, select Wallpaper -> Live Wallpapers, search for Video Live Wallpaper
(* if your phone doesn't show the "Unknown sources" option, your carrier has disabled it. You might want to try one of the APK sideloading applications instead, like this one (you need a PC))
I can't download the APK. My phone says "Cannot download. The content is not supported on this phone". What to do?
Try downloading the app from the market first. If you can't, then download the APK with your computer and transfer the APK to the phone's SD Card. Or download with your phone using a downloading app, like ByteTornado.
This LWP is very cool. Thanks! How can I contribute?
In a number of ways:
by contacting me if you have any issues, not mentioned in this FAQ
by saying thanks
by buying me a cup of coffee or a pizza
great job! trying this now
Awesome job, it does work with some mp4 videos too, just a thought, you can try adding zoom out and timed
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App
Sounds great, but how much does it hammer the battery?
Naffets said:
Sounds great, but how much does it hammer the battery?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i havent seen too much battery drain with this so so far so good.
@OP are there any ideal settings for the best quality or performance?
trying this now, has google added slovenia to to market list (so you can release paid apps on market?)
very cool app Good job.
cheddie said:
i havent seen too much battery drain with this so so far so good.
@OP are there any ideal settings for the best quality or performance?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Depends on the codec of the video. Mpeg1, mpeg2, mjpeg and divx are amongst the best, x264 (mp4) is not great because it's complex to decode. See help for details for the best codecs and resolutions/frame rates. Or just do the similar to the sample videos: 560x420 (4:3), 20 fps (can go up to 23.976), divx codec, 2500-3500 kbps.
frankinstine said:
Awesome job, it does work with some mp4 videos too, just a thought, you can try adding zoom out and timed
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A tough one, since the rendering is heavily optimized on the idea that the entire video doesn't have to be decoded.
What do you mean by timed?
ermacwins said:
trying this now, has google added slovenia to to market list (so you can release paid apps on market?)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, not yet (what a shame since we're in EU, we can't even buy paid apps yet).
awesome app!!!
LWP is added to the market. The link and the QR code are added to the first post.
Just downloaded, it seems very interesting!!
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App
New version published:
0.82b, published 2010-10-13
- fixed a bug where changelog kept showing in settings. Sorry about this!
0.81b, published 2010-10-13
- fixed a bug where selecting certain directories would cause force closes
- fixed a bug where selecting a different video file would have no effect (thanks to rod for discovering the bug)
- corrected grammatical errors in help
Great app and premise, but imo doesn't really seem worth it since the quality of the video and fps have to be lowered so much. I'll go ahead and download this to see just how much the quality is degraded as I've got some great hidef videos I wouldn't mind having as wallpaper. Has this been an issue with anyone else?
I haven't had a problem with the fps of any of the 720p youtube vids I've downloaded, though 720p ends up looking pixellated. 270x360 looks better. Using http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92jyNSaNmT4 and it looks pretty good.
cr6 said:
Great app and premise, but imo doesn't really seem worth it since the quality of the video and fps have to be lowered so much. I'll go ahead and download this to see just how much the quality is degraded as I've got some great hidef videos I wouldn't mind having as wallpaper. Has this been an issue with anyone else?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No reason not to try and experiment. For example on my Nexus, a 1280x720 video in MPEG-1 format will play at about 15 FPS if I disable frame skipping.
If I wanted it faster, I could crop it down to 720x720, which would then be able to be played at 20 FPS.
If I cropped it down further to 432x720 (which is the same ratio as the phone's 480x800 display), it would easily play at 25 FPS which is enough for my eyes, but still in full display's resolution.
If you know how to use ffmpeg, then this command will crop and convert a 720p .mkv file down to 720x720 at 20 FPS .mpg:
Code:
ffmpeg -i "720-input.mkv" -an -vcodec mpeg1video -vb 8000k -vf "crop=280:0:720:720" -r 20 "720-output.mpg"
Or this command would crop it to 432x720 at 25 FPS:
Code:
ffmpeg -i "720-input.mkv" -an -vcodec mpeg1video -vb 8000k -vf "crop=424:0:432:720" -r 25 "720-output.mpg"
paulk_ said:
I haven't had a problem with the fps of any of the 720p youtube vids I've downloaded, though 720p ends up looking pixellated. 270x360 looks better. Using http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92jyNSaNmT4 and it looks pretty good.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wicket video!
Flv and Mp4, while they work, are not the best formats to use with VLW. Try to convert them to .avi (divx) or .mpg (MPEG-1) for even better results.
Find your own way to convert, or use the free ffmpeg tool in one of the following two ways:
Code:
ffmpeg -i "original.flv" -an -vcodec mpeg4 -vb 8000k "converted.avi"
ffmpeg -i "original.flv" -an -vcodec mpeg1video -vb 8000k "converted.mpg"
(bitrate is overrated at 8000k, but the quality will probably be very good)
Thanks for the info, I'll definately give it a try!
Would any one care to donate a little time to make a video tutorial on how to use this live wallpaper? How to select a file to play, how to select an entire folder, what options are there, what video sizes are bad, etc...
I would embed it in the main web page of the app (and of course thank the author):
http://android.ccpcreations.com/vlw/
best video specs
Hello pikipirs et all!
I donatated $10 bucks because I really like the idea of true video wallpaper on my N1 and hope that you continue to develop and improve the app!
One can find lots of great video loops on the net that can be used. Some of them look great (i.e. Wallpaper attachment). Others look poor quality (i.e fs21 attachment). And others stop all together sometimes.
So I guess what I would like is simple, step by step instructions on how to convert or optimize a video so that it looks great and runs smoothly. I've tried using MediaCoder for example to convert the videos that look bad to MPEG1 (which you indicated in the help section was the best format) but they still look bad. What is the best format? Size? Resolution? Frame-rate? So that it looks perfect and how can one convert a video to these specifications? Can any video, formatted correctly, look good?
Oh and another suggestion would be, instead of the app randomly picking videos and switching them all the time, what about the option to only switch it when you 'wake-up' the device so that it doesn't cut into another video while you are viewing it but continues to loop.
Thanks again for the great app. Like I said some vids I've found look great but still, it would be nice to know how to make any video look as good.
Bryce2010 said:
Hello pikipirs et all!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey.
Bryce2010 said:
I donatated $10 bucks because I really like the idea of true video wallpaper on my N1 and hope that you continue to develop and improve the app!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks.
Bryce2010 said:
One can find lots of great video loops on the net that can be used. Some of them look great (i.e. Wallpaper attachment). Others look poor quality (i.e fs21 attachment). And others stop all together sometimes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Be prepared for a long answer.
This is subjective, I guess. The video will show in as good a quality as it actually is. The VLW (video live wallpaper) always zooms into a video in such a way that it covers the entire height of the display, while its ratio is not changed. The video's width is then used as scrolling surface so it shifts when you swipe between home screens.
The first video you posted has a vertical resolution of 480. This resolution fits very well in the height of a small mobile display (whatever resolution it might be) so you don't see alot of pixels. In fact, 480 is the maximum vertical resolution that I recommend for VLW, as higher ones might start causing the animation to play slower/skip video frames.
The second video you posted has a vertical resolution of 220. This gets close to the lower bound of acceptible pixel density for your eyes. While this is good on your phone's battery (VLW doesn't have to struggle as much to decode the video), it's not good on you eyes, that is, you can see video pixels which spoils the experience. One idea that I would have for the second video is maybe to reencode it rotated by 90 degrees. This way its vertical resolution will become 400 (current width) which would be easier on the eyes. (hold back on the rotating/reencoding part a little longer, as I plan on adding an option to rotate videos in the VLW).
Videos may play slower or even stop if they are too large for the underpowered phone's processor to handle. If you've been using computers for the last 10 years, then you should remember the ones that struggled to even play divx files properly. Some computers (like netbooks) have problems playing back HD content even today. The same is true for your phone. While a common divx should be handled by VLW just fine, any HD content (720p or 1080p) is way to much to handle. I guess what I'm trying to say is, don't go overboard with the resolution and don't expect miracles from your phone's processor.
Bryce2010 said:
So I guess what I would like is simple, step by step instructions on how to convert or optimize a video so that it looks great and runs smoothly. I've tried using MediaCoder for example to convert the videos that look bad to MPEG1 (which you indicated in the help section was the best format) but they still look bad. What is the best format? Size? Resolution? Frame-rate? So that it looks perfect and how can one convert a video to these specifications? Can any video, formatted correctly, look good?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is no easy way to describe how to convert videos, as it almost always depends on the original video itself. As I said, a video is as good as it actually is. Reencoding, converting and/or enlarging it digitally won't make it any nicer.
Format changing is reasonable when you are dealing with resolutions and sizes that become hard to handle by the phone. Imagine a video with 854x480 at 30 FPS (your usual 480p video on youtube, for example). VLW has to process 854*480*30=12,297,600 pixels each second if it wants to play the video in real time. If this video is in h264 (which 480p youtube videos with .mp4 extension are) then it's even worse because h264 codec is very complex, which makes the processing part even harder. That's why I recommend reencoding to a less complex format, like mpeg-1 or mpeg-4 (divx).
Best format globally in my opinion is divx (mpeg-4 .avi). It represents a good compromise between complexity and size for a given quality. If you want less complexity (=more battery live), go with videoCD format (mpeg-1 .mpg) which will require larger files for the same quality, but is easier to decode for VLW.
Also one other thing to note, .mpg files need a bit of time to reload. This makes them useless for looping animations as the animation appears to freeze when looping. This is true for a lot of other formats/codecs as well. Divx doesn't have that pause (well it does, but it's amost unnoticable).
Resolution/frame rate is another tough one. The easiest way of going about it is to calculate the processed pixels per second, as I did above for the youtube video example. You can find all the help on how to do this in the help section. If you get your videos from standard 16:9 or 4:3 sources, then a couple of good resolution/framerate combinations are described in the help section. I recommend 360p (640x360 for 16:9, 480x360 for 4:3 videos, both at 30 FPS) or 480p (854x480 for 16:9, 640x480 for 4:3 videos, both at 25 FPS) in divx format. Remember once again - the biggest factor in the appearent quality of a perfectly reencoded video, is its vertical resolution. be between 360 and 480 and you'll be fine. The second biggest factor is frame rate, hold that one between 30FPS for 360p and 25FPS for 480p.
Bryce2010 said:
Oh and another suggestion would be, instead of the app randomly picking videos and switching them all the time, what about the option to only switch it when you 'wake-up' the device so that it doesn't cut into another video while you are viewing it but continues to loop.
Thanks again for the great app. Like I said some vids I've found look great but still, it would be nice to know how to make any video look as good.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So you suggest adding an option to keep looping the same (but randomly choosen) video, and switch to another video only when the live wallpaper unpauses? That's a good idea. To a todo list...
PS: Are you on a mac or on Windows? I might be able to make a couple of simple scripts that use FFmpeg to convert videos with common ratios to better sizes/formats.
Did not know where to post this exactly, cause it may be the display...
Coming from the 700, I realize I am moving down in resolution, and on some things, I can see the difference (this is a whole other subject).
One thing that is key for me, is my Music. #1 duty for this tablet. On my 700, the album seemed crisp, but on my Note it seems to be a bit "fuzzy" when blown up.
Now, I am assuming this is the lower resolution, which is fine. My question is, to get crisp album art, do I need to go out and download higher res images and modify the album art on my stuff?
I am thinking that the majority of these are either pre loaded by Google when I uploaded them, and some are 300x300 (or in that area).
I love my Note, so I dont have an issue retagging these with new album art images (even though it will take time with my 6000 songs) but I just wanted to check if there was another way. Maybe another player that connects to Google Music?
For anyone that gives a crap, if you use Google Music like I do, and notice that your album art is blurry, you need a higher resolution album art graphic.
I tested this out with my All That Remains - The Fall of Ideals album. Cover was pixelated real bad.
I googled the album art and found one 1200x1200, and edited the album via the web page version of goolgle music.
Did a refresh of my library and the difference is drastically noticeable.
Looks like I will have a busy weekend.
And how to change it?
It wasn't a problem on the N7000, but now on the N910F's 1440p screen the 1080p videos get upscaled with WAY too sharpening, ruining the image. Is there any way to use another scaling with less sharpening of the image?
There should be no sharpening since it uses what system uses and system uses bilinear. There're no options in MX player that affect scaling quality.
I see 2 possible cases: either display does this or this is post-processing apllied to media (manufactures love this thing, every PC gpu has "image worsener" options. Even my Z3 Compact has those). Try checking device settings for any kinds of "display/image enhancement" that could be turned off.
Does this happen when no scaling is happening (use bottom right button to select "100%" scaling mode)?
Does this happen when using S/W decoder?
I'm using this video to test scaling algorithms, can you try playing it (at default and 100% zoom) and take screenshots?
http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?file_id=75458987026854998049 (this will be played using H/W decoder)
http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?file_id=00692852724795150552 (this should force using S/W decoder)
vivan000 said:
There should be no sharpening since it uses what system uses and system uses bilinear. There're no options in MX player that affect scaling quality.
I see 2 possible cases: either display does this or this is post-processing apllied to media (manufactures love this thing, every PC gpu has "image worsener" options. Even my Z3 Compact has those). Try checking device settings for any kinds of "display/image enhancement" that could be turned off.
Does this happen when no scaling is happening (use bottom right button to select "100%" scaling mode)?
Does this happen when using S/W decoder?
I'm using this video to test scaling algorithms, can you try playing it (at default and 100% zoom) and take screenshots?
http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?file_id=75458987026854998049 (this will be played using H/W decoder)
http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?file_id=00692852724795150552 (this should force using S/W decoder)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here it is, sorry for the delay.
HW:
http://puu.sh/hktEe/c21a7bd661.jpg
http://puu.sh/hktHg/c6e3a073a7.jpg
SW:
http://puu.sh/hktHs/63ddfbeb82.jpg
http://puu.sh/hktFY/947030aba1.jpg
Also, bonus:
http://puu.sh/hktNi/f47eab21d6.jpg
http://puu.sh/hktM0/b2962844b7.jpg
It does appear that the issue is not the scaling, but it's the decoding or something after that that ruins the quality (for example the vertical lines seen on full colors). I tried disabling every "image enhancement" I found in the settings of the Note4, without much success.
First, I forgot to mention that by default SW decoder uses 16-bit (5/6/5-bit) RGB which is really bad (long time ago most of the devices couldn't handle 24-bit color but those times passed). Settings -> decoder -> color format (at the bottom) -> RGB 32-bit (YUV is actually faster and better, but less predictable).
Images for reference:
bilinear / cropped (it didn't like height of the video not being mod8 and cropped it a bit, my fault) bilinear
bicubic (just for a reference - how sharp scaler actually looks) / cropped bicubic
So it still bilinear, and indeed there's some sharpening - but it's very hard to spot without high magnification.
100% / cropped and resized back to match HW
Well, my conclusion is that it sharps everything for a tiny amount, but only after scaling (usually postprocessing does it before). And it seem to affect SW mode too... It makes me wonder if does this for everything on a screen.
However those vertical lines are really weird.
Usually postprocessing works only with hardware decoding because it's easy for a driver to mess there (after the decoding, before giving the picture to a renderer). In SW mode player works like any other app (like game, browser or image viewer), system doesn't know that it plays video.
Here's what my Z3 Compact could do: before / mode1 / mode2. Now that's terrible Luckily it could be turned off.
If you don't mind I have another test (based on http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/sharpness.php), to test if it sharps everything.
That image is made that way that even tiny amount of sharpness is visible. If everything is ok - it must look solid gray, if sharpening happens - some squares become brighter (there're examples on that site). But I'm not sure if it would be representative on such screen because it has non-RGB subpixel layout.
http://s29.postimg.org/ql7twm0mt/1440p.png (download it and open in image viewer, without zooming - it's 2560x1440 and should be displayed as 1:1).
1) Does it look solid or some squares are lighter/darker?
2) Could you take a screenshot of it (of this picture opened in image viewer to see if it sharps it)?
As for vertical lines... if you want I could provide a build of a library that I'm working on. It's works like a game (doesn't rely on media system) and should be able to render/display image perfectly unless system itself does something weird. If it does - and there's nothing in settings that affects it - then nothing could be done (except talking with samsung support and hoping that they'll fix it). If it doesn't - then there's some hope.
vivan000 said:
First, I forgot to mention that by default SW decoder uses 16-bit (5/6/5-bit) RGB which is really bad (long time ago most of the devices couldn't handle 24-bit color but those times passed). Settings -> decoder -> color format (at the bottom) -> RGB 32-bit (YUV is actually faster and better, but less predictable).
Images for reference:
bilinear / cropped (it didn't like height of the video not being mod8 and cropped it a bit, my fault) bilinear
bicubic (just for a reference - how sharp scaler actually looks) / cropped bicubic
So it still bilinear, and indeed there's some sharpening - but it's very hard to spot without high magnification.
100% / cropped and resized back to match HW
Well, my conclusion is that it sharps everything for a tiny amount, but only after scaling (usually postprocessing does it before). And it seem to affect SW mode too... It makes me wonder if does this for everything on a screen.
However those vertical lines are really weird.
Usually postprocessing works only with hardware decoding because it's easy for a driver to mess there (after the decoding, before giving the picture to a renderer). In SW mode player works like any other app (like game, browser or image viewer), system doesn't know that it plays video.
Here's what my Z3 Compact could do: before / mode1 / mode2. Now that's terrible Luckily it could be turned off.
If you don't mind I have another test (based on http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/sharpness.php), to test if it sharps everything.
That image is made that way that even tiny amount of sharpness is visible. If everything is ok - it must look solid gray, if sharpening happens - some squares become brighter (there're examples on that site). But I'm not sure if it would be representative on such screen because it has non-RGB subpixel layout.
http://s29.postimg.org/ql7twm0mt/1440p.png (download it and open in image viewer, without zooming - it's 2560x1440 and should be displayed as 1:1).
1) Does it look solid or some squares are lighter/darker?
2) Could you take a screenshot of it (of this picture opened in image viewer to see if it sharps it)?
As for vertical lines... if you want I could provide a build of a library that I'm working on. It's works like a game (doesn't rely on media system) and should be able to render/display image perfectly unless system itself does something weird. If it does - and there's nothing in settings that affects it - then nothing could be done (except talking with samsung support and hoping that they'll fix it). If it doesn't - then there's some hope.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here is the screenshot:
http://puu.sh/hkJDS/770ba02860.jpg